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Leave poverty at the school gates

Make a difference to the lives of children in your school community

Are you a head teacher or a school governor, a member of a school PTA or a church PCC? Find out from members of The Children’s Commission on Poverty how your school can make school life fairer and better for children in poverty.

For a year, the young commissioners interviewed fellow students across the country, focusing on how poverty posed a problem for children. They uncovered stories like:

‘The teacher started shouting at me because I didn’t do [the homework]. I had to say out loud that I didn’t have a computer and everyone started laughing.’

'It felt bad when everyone came back [from the trip] and said what an amazing time they’d had.'

'I remember when I was paying with a token, someone just came up to me and said "Why do you use that…are you free school meals?" and started saying I was poor and everything like that.’

Use the young commissioners’ short booklet for schools

The commissioners’ booklet for schools is a key result of the young commissioners’ work. They discovered that urgent change is needed to make sure that children living in poorer families are not isolated, stigmatised or excluded from opportunities at school.

Get in touch

We are taking forward the young commissioners’ thorough recommendations in partnership with them. We are working with education boards and schools directly to make sure schools are aware of the barriers that might cause problems to children in poverty.